Volvo truck profits surge

Amid an aggressive cost-savings cutback, Volvo AB’s first-quarter operating profit surged to $345 million, up from $73 million the year before.

With a blowout first quarter on the books, Volvo revised its truck-market predictions for the rest of the year, setting North American delivery expectations of 260,000 vehicles industrywide, an uptick of 10,000 units.

Net truck sales jumped to $6.3 billion from $5.6 billion for the quarter.

“The measures we are implementing to increase the Group’s profitability are running according to plan and starts to have a positive impact on our gross margin and costs, but there is still more work to do in terms of cost reductions and this is the Group’s main focus for 2014,” Olof Persson, President and CEO, said through a statement.

The company says it took orders for 9,430 Volvo branded trucks in the first quarter, compared to 8,305 the year before. Mack orders jumped to 6,845, up from 4,924 in Q1 2014.